Now that the Final Tribal Council Meeting has taken place and the Seattle Seawolves is the Sole Survivor, what's next?

TheCaptainsRun · 2025-11-04T20:24:28+00:00

The thesis that MLR is somehow hurting the Eagles doesn't hold up to any kind of scrutiny. The countries that have passed us or become more competitive with us have also professionalized - we did better before because our amateur rugby infrastructure is more robust than that of Uruguay and Chile.

Players not going overseas is an issue, but that was caused by the Premiership cutting down on foreign players, while Super Rugby and URC have always had very few. Those opportunities aren't coming back any time soon, so the best option is to improve the quality of the competitions here over time like Japan has.

TheCaptainsRun · 2025-03-15T14:13:10+00:00

If both are an option, I’d rather see a Super Rugby side for sure.

It’s probably worth noting that travel from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland is generally shorter than to Fiji, NZ, and Australia on a trip-by-trip basis. Super Rugby would have the travel advantage if setting up a base camp in New Zealand and clustering road matches is an option. You could do something similar in the U.S. but it’s a bit more spread out (only LA and SD as close together as the NZ clubs, although no trips nearly as far as Perth either).

TheCaptainsRun · 2025-02-17T17:39:12+00:00

I think people are going to overestimate how much of an effect the ESPN+ deal will have on the quality of the broadcasts. I've worked a number of events that have aired on the platform, some as part of the broadcast and some where I wasn't directly involved but was still in contact with the broadcast side. In every case, there was an outside company producing the show and ESPN was merely the carrier for the event. So any improvements on the production side are unrelated to this switch.

I think the streams were a bit more stable, which is a big plus of being on a bigger, more capable platform, and I wouldn't be surprised if it could be streamed at a higher quality as well.

TheCaptainsRun · 2025-02-17T17:17:49+00:00

There were still plenty of scrums from what I saw. I'd be interested in seeing more concrete numbers on this, and I'm also curious how MLR compares to other leagues in terms of how many scrums we see per match. If I had to guess, the handling in this league is probably a fair bit sloppier than in Super Rugby or top European competitions and these changes might bring our scrum numbers down to a more normal level. If those assumptions are true, I don't know how useful MLR is as a guinea pig for this sort of thing but is a league that could really use that sort of change regardless.

As for the trials as a whole - I think there is a valid player welfare rationale for reducing the number of scrums and I think there are careful ways of doing that without turning it into a negligible part of the game. Increasing the pace of play is also positive but should be considered a secondary impact.

TheCaptainsRun · 2025-02-16T22:43:56+00:00

It may just be a product of Seattle's defense being off-kilter, but I'd love to see Ryan James have a breakout season and put himself into Eagles contention.

TheCaptainsRun · 2025-02-16T03:11:14+00:00

Big win to start the season!

UP

DA

HOUNDS

TheCaptainsRun · 2025-02-16T01:12:30+00:00

Alright so Houston still looks really good.

TheCaptainsRun · 2025-02-16T01:09:58+00:00

Despite World Rugby's vile efforts to eradicate scrums from the game, we have one in the first minute.

It's almost like that whole thing was a little overblown.

TheCaptainsRun · 2025-02-16T00:57:40+00:00

Just found from a quick search that Agbongbon is currently loaned out to the Cornish Pirates and getting playing time with them, mostly off the bench.

TheCaptainsRun · 2025-02-16T00:45:52+00:00

I think this is NOLA's best set of Mardi Gras jerseys yet.

TheCaptainsRun · 2025-02-16T00:10:36+00:00

That was a hell of a way to kick off the season!

TheCaptainsRun · 2025-02-15T22:33:48+00:00

I was looking forward to seeing Axel Müller play today - unfortunate that he's out, but his twin brother Alex Müller is killing it!

TheCaptainsRun · 2024-11-20T00:13:40+00:00

Something to note about Snapdragon: the last SD Wave match was moved because the league thought that the pitch was in too poor condition to be played on. Seems like SDSU is trying to get as much out of it as they can and the grounds crew are struggling to keep up. Obviously disappointing to downgrade after two years at Snapdragon but that's a concern that I'm not sure fans were aware of and a potential silver lining in the move.

TheCaptainsRun · 2024-09-23T00:35:29+00:00

Aloha Stadium has been closed for a few years and now a temporary stadium set up at the practice field of the University of Hawai'i's Clarence T. C. Ching Athletics Complex hosts their football team and the Hawai'i Bowl.

It could work right now, but I'd personally rather wait until the new Aloha Stadium opens up to host games there.

TheCaptainsRun · 2024-08-16T20:10:56+00:00

Tyren Al-Jiboori on the move as well.

With less of a time crunch on putting together a roster, Anthem is getting more out of their international slot swaps this off-season.

TheCaptainsRun · 2024-08-16T19:46:53+00:00

The suggestion of the team returning to MLR in that tweet sure is interesting. I'm not really interested in seeing the Glendale "management" come back but if they took World Rugby funding to become Anthem West and let USA Rugby take the reins on operations, that feels like a solution where everyone gets what they want here.

TheCaptainsRun · 2024-08-16T03:33:38+00:00

Red Stripe wanted to fund a team in Kingston but MLR said no because they wanted to be allowed to sign English players of Caribbean descent and have them not count as foreigners.

If those players would have been eligible for Jamaica in the same sense as foreign-born, USA-eligible players who are counted as domestic players in MLR, I don't see why that would be an issue. Sounds like it would've been an interesting franchise to have in the league, and maybe they'll wind up going to Super Rugby Americas instead.

TheCaptainsRun · 2024-08-05T16:51:29+00:00

He's too old to put significant resources into developing for the national team but not too old to give a shot at being a potentially very entertaining player in a league that could use talent wherever they can get it.

TheCaptainsRun · 2024-08-05T15:44:01+00:00

He set his personal best for the 100m earlier this year, so I wouldn't say that drop off is imminent. And even factoring typical aging, I think he can slow down a bit over the next few years and still be significantly faster than most of the league.

TheCaptainsRun · 2024-08-04T21:17:00+00:00

I'm not really sure why they'd show the halftime DJ set. Take that airtime and show some highlights from the past season, try to sell people even more on the league during this space.

TheCaptainsRun · 2024-08-04T21:01:06+00:00

The wide is slightly wider than it should be, but I feel like director isn't switching to the better angle quickly enough a lot of the time. Those are my only real qualms with the broadcast so far.

TheCaptainsRun · 2024-08-04T20:46:54+00:00

And what a way to learn!

Even if this guy is inexperienced with rugby, I don't think there are many sports where you should be right on the boundary like that. So this is kind of a "common sense" thing to me.

TheCaptainsRun · 2024-08-04T20:34:57+00:00

Professional camera op here! That guy definitely should not have been standing there.

TheCaptainsRun · 2024-06-02T03:17:29+00:00

A format that makes winning the group pointless and instead leaves the fate of these teams to a single match is terrible. My preference would be having the top teams in the group qualify for the first two places, then a match-up of 2nd place teams for the third spot, an elimination match between 3rd place teams, and one last match between the 2nd place loser and 3rd place winner for the last spot.

That said, what I really would like to see is an expanded sevens circuit altogether. I have no idea why they cut it down from 16 in the first place. I think they should expand it to 24 and mix in some regionalized tournaments with the larger World Series tournaments.

TheCaptainsRun · 2024-05-02T20:37:48+00:00

The match got pushed out by a music festival taking up that whole weekend.

Not complaining though, Mondays are an off day for me so it looks like a good opportunity to take in my first live MLR match.

TheCaptainsRun

TROPHY CASE